What Can You Achieve In A Decade?- Here Is A Decade Into My Life & What I’ve Achieved
What can a person achieve in a decade? Tony Robbins always says, “Once you have mastered time, you will understand how true it is that most people overestimate what they can accomplish in a year – and underestimate what they can achieve in a decade!”. I think about that quote often…
When I was 19 years old, I attended a self-growth seminar.
In that seminar, there were many people from all walks of life and ages. I was probably one of the youngest there. One of the main subjects we spoke about is how to maximize your life because too often, too many people live the same year on repeat, you know…20 years in a row, with no real self-growth. Never stepping outside of their comfort zone, just living life on auto-pilot.
At first, I thought it couldn’t be, how can anyone live the same year on repeat?! Who does that?!…you know, being the 19-year old that I was, who hasn’t really done life yet thought this was ridiculous! Who would do such a thing?! However, as more shared their story I was at disbelief as to how true it really was. I made a promise to myself at that very moment that I would NEVER live the same year on repeat. I will always seek self-growth, make goals, have a ridiculous bucket list but actually make all my wildest dreams come true no matter what it took and so I have. It was a vow I made to myself and it couldn’t be broken because life, my life was more precious than that.
AND with that being said I wanted to recap with you where I was 10 years ago, what I’ve accomplished in those 10 years and how it has helped me become who I am today and maybe inspire you along the way…
2009
In late 2009, I had just gotten back from a 2 month trip to Israel, solo, after not visiting for many many years. When I got back, my parents got a divorce after being together since the age of 13 and our once dream house was gone, sold. My mom and sisters moved to Israel and my dad, brother and I stayed in California.
My family was broken into half and being the most family orientated person you’ll ever know and definitely playing that role in my family dynamic, I was crushed…although I knew it was the best. However, my safety net was broken. In the past 6 years leading to their divorce, I tried many careers, lived in a few cities in CA and moved to NYC and every time I wanted a do-over or a new career/life makeover, I had my parents house to stay at for a few months to figure life out, but after their split, there was no home to come home to and figure life out again. It was gone. So I had to be fully independent and probably “try” to make better life decisions which is hard for a dreamer, impulse person that operates on feelings and intuition.
2010
The irony…
In 2010, I actually started a blog! This was my second blog, my first was on livejournal a million years ago when I was in high school but this time around it wasn’t about my high school drama and celebrity life in Los Angeles. I was on a mission to change the world. I started a blog called “365 Days Of Selfless Acts For Humanity“, where I was going to do one good thing for the world each day on the hopes of inspiring others to do more good into the world.
It was a great and beautiful idea, problem was, when I was 24, I was terrible at finishing things I started. I did, however, sign up for a volunteer program in Israel for 5 months to better a city on a project called MASA Oranim. I never finished posting on my blog because I just started to feel uncomfortable with the idea of sharing personal good deeds. I didn’t want people to get the wrong idea and think I’m showing up or I don’t know…you know what I mean?… it just started to get odd for me (but I kept doing good deeds daily). I never finished the program either. I left a month before it was over, went to Tel Aviv, became a waitress at the beach, saved some money and on my 25th birthday decided to go visit Jerusalem which changed my life forever.
Shortly after my trip, I decided to move to Jerusalem and became super religious, dressing super conservative/covered up. Lived in the Old City of Jerusalem and studied Torah/Bible for a few months.
Before the year was over, I got a job offer in Baltimore and figured I’d try it for 2 months, make some money since I was broke and then get on with my next great adventure. But LOVE, love stole my heart and kept me in Baltimore for way longer than I ever expected.
2011
I was living in Baltimore, definitely NOT the LA girl dream lol but I was making so much money, I was good at what I do and I kept getting promoted. I was doing sales and I was the best salesperson in the USA for the company I worked for. So I became a sales trainer and then a corp sales trainer.
I was also supporting my whole family in Israel since my dad was having financial issues.
I also broke up with my boyfriend towards the end of the year, who was the manager of the company and moved all my things that were in storage in LA for 4 years into my dream apartment I had rented and moved into after the breakup. I couldn’t leave Baltimore until I knew my family was ok.
2012
The breakup wasn’t doing any good for anyone lol. My ex and I were like cat and mice, fighting every single day and it was hurting the business and my mental health. The last year and a half in Baltimore were probably some of the worst times of my life. I cried more than I ever thought was possible, daily, a few times a day, for months on end but I also learned a lot and knew I can’t leave until my family was ok. So to help matters I also brought along with my brother and sister to work for the company.
This was when I was promoted to be a national sales trainer and would go around to different cities all over the US and help people that were struggling with their business. My job was to give their business a makeover lol. You know those shows where an expert is sent out to give a restaurant a makeover, spy on them first, then comes out, points out exactly what is wrong, what needs to change, shows them how it’s done and leaves making it a successful place 😉 well that was ME! and it was amazing and I was good at it! I loved helping people! AND I got to travel A LOT! Almost every week. Friday I would fly into a new city, do a weekend training makeover and come home Sunday late at night or Monday making a financial killing, recovering for a few days and then back at it!
I loved this life! I kinda felt like Georgia Clooney in “Up In The Air” (remember that movie). This in and out of airports, independent power woman, helping people all around the world and when I left they would make twice as much and the following month three times as much! It was amazing! I also got to go on many personal trips which was great!
On one of my trips, I went to Hawaii solo for a week. My boss was like “Are you crazy? What are you gonna do there by yourself for a week?!”, I told him “you don’t get it.” and clearly I didn’t either, I didn’t know how much I liked to traveling solo until this trip where I begged him to extend it.
This is also the year I went on my first solo trip out of the country to Italy on my birthday and it changed my life forever…clearly 😉
But enough was enough. My ex and I were still killing each other lol and it was time to spread my wings and fly! Say bye to Baltimore but before I did, I took another solo Euro trip and celebrated NYE in Paris, visited London and Barcelona and well…the wanderlust soul within me was on full blast.
2013
It was time to pack up my stuff once again, put it in storage and figure out a new life plan…where was I going? What was I gonna do with my life?
Oddly enough, right after I quit I was asked to do one last training in Miami. I wasn’t really into it but said let me speak to the owner. I wanted to see what kind of vibe I got off of him. If he seemed like a good person I was willing to go, if he didn’t I wasn’t lol. After speaking to him my intuition said GO GIRL! So I went! and well oddly enough, he offered me a manager/a partnership position and since I had no plans or ideas on where I was gonna go now, I said YES! Why not! Let’s move to Miami!
2013, was also the year I went back to blond! I wanted to feel like a brand new person, so before moving to Miami I visited my BFF in Nashville and colored my hair blond 🙂
I lived in Miami for a few months before I had to move to Israel to solve a few personal/family issues. After a summer spent in Israel, I moved back to Miami and brought my brother and sister with me to work there too.
This is where I met the love of my life, Peanut Napleton Cohen! A beautiful 8-week-year-old Yorkie who has changed my life forever! Truly the love of life and I adopted Peanut without even having an idea how to raise a dog or where I was going to live in the future.
Miami was great! Best place I ever lived at but I was sick of the job. I was sick of working 13-15 hours a day. I missed the sun, I missed traveling, I had already achieved everything you can possibly do within the company. I sold the most products, made the biggest sales, made the most money and I was over it. I wanted to do something that truly made me happy — something I was passionate about. I just didn’t know what that was but I knew it had to do with traveling, art/creativity and helping/inspiring people.
My job in Miami came with a car and an apartment so I knew if I quit, it would all be taken away from me but this girl always follows her heart, her intuition, her moral compass and knows when G*d and the universe is telling her its time to leave.
So I left my Miami dream and decided to move back to LA…why not right? It’s been a while. My dad and childhood friends all lived there. I had absolutely no idea what I was gonna do with my life at the age of 28.
So I took a few waitressing jobs and side gigs at first.
2014
LIFE CHANGED! Major! I started Vanilla Sky Dreaming — my blog & brand! One random night at 4am I decided this is what I want to do with the rest of my life — be a travel blogger! I was following a female solo traveler blogger at the time for 6 months until I realized, I NEED to be doing this! and so I did! Vanilla Sky Dreaming was born early March.
I had absolutely no clue what the heck I was doing haha I had no idea how to make money from this dream job but it’s the job I wanted!
I visited Mexico for a travel blogger conference, took my mom to Greece for her 50th birthday & went to Israel. That’s when life took an unexpected turn while visiting Israel, when a crazy war broke out and I was completely traumatized after seeing bombs flying towards me, running to bomb shelters, not being able to leave my house for 3 weeks, sleeping with my shoes on and even running to a bomb shelter at the airport the day my flight took place. A bomb exploded a half a mile away from the airport as I was about to board and the airport in Israel was closed for the first time since its existence. I came home traumatized and developed PTSD, anxiety and panic attacks and didn’t travel until I got better which took a few months.
2015
2015, I traveled to 18 countries! The goal of this year was to go to as many countries as I possibly can — SUCCESS!
I visited Prague, Budapest, Vienna, London, NYE in Amsterdam, Iceland, Singapore, India, Paris, Israel and so much more! I lost track.
This was the year I also won the Kerala Blog Express! My first free blogger trip to Kerala, India and it was life-changing!
My first job was selling video footage I had filmed in Vienna to NBC News & The Weather Channel! How crazy is that?! (They reached out to me) But I didn’t make much money doing this for at least 2 years. Crazy right? I had no idea how. Back then it was a new business. There was no guides, no college degrees. You had to figure it out on your own.
This was the year I also rented an apartment after living out of my suitcase for a few years. I originally only thought I’d live there for 8 months, so I literally lived in a house with NO furniture because I wanted to spend every last dollar I owned on traveling. I actually wrote an article about this in the Huffington Post (I Chose To Live In A House With No Furniture To Travel The World) which was also a big achievement because I tried submitting so many articles before and none of them were accepted until this year story. The crazy girl who lived in an apartment with no furniture for the sack of her love for travel! haha I guess you get rewarded for being a crazy wanderlust gypsy.
I also had a few articles written in magazines this year! Which was crazy and amazing to me!
2016
In 2016, my goal was to do the craziest things in the world, literally the craziest adventures I can come up with! and so I did!
I slept in the Ice Hotel in Finland, swam with Sharks in the Dominican Republic, held a stingray and freaked out! I went on the longest and tallest zip line in the Carribean! I slept in a glass igloo, went on a husky safari, went to the arctic circle, went on a ship that breaks glaciers in the arctic circle that looked like something straight out of a National Geographic magazine or Antarctica. I swam with icebergs, YES! In the water with a survival suit! I didn’t show up to flights to extend the adventure because I met cool people! I went crazy this year haha in the best way possible! Made so many dreams come true!
One of the coolest moments of my career also happened this year, when Ashton Kutcher came across one of my videos on why you should travel solo and shared it on his Facebook page with over 17,600,000 followers! Insane! I dead lol! (How I Got Ashton Kutcher To Share My Travel Video On Facebook).
I also moved to Philly for 2 months to work for the same person I used to work for in Baltimore to save some money and travel of course!
I alsooo, got a call back from my favorite tv show in Israel to fly out to Israel for a final audition. I made it through all 6 or 7 levels basically until the last last part and it was between me and another girl and she got it. It sucked but it was also amazing making it that far, I guess the universe had a different plan for me. (How Auditioning For A Reality TV Show, Led Me To Making My First Palestinian Friend).
2017
2017 was the year I actually started getting paid for what I do which let me tell you lol, is pretty exciting on its own! haha
This year for me was about visiting places many people didn’t know anything about and having unique experiences.
I visited Cuba solo and went back to the 1950’s when the border was still closed with my Israeli passport. I discovered my favorite city in the world, Tulum, before anyone knew what it was. I went to Aruba on a luxury media trip, saved a 90-year-old woman’s life at the airport in Curaçao and made a life long friend (we still talk). I went to Anguilla & St. Martin and finally got see the famous beach where the airplanes fly over your head. I went to the Owl Cafe in Tokyo and had coffee and hung out with owls lol! (all truth!). I dressed up as a geisha, dressed up as a Harajuku girl! I visited Sri Lanka, went on a real safari and celebrated my birthday in the jungles. I went Absailing over a 500-foot mountain with a waterfall and thought I’d die haha but I survived. I went to Iceland again for the second time and saw a mid-shower of northern lights, basically 6 nights in a row. I finally got to see the famous black sand beach in Iceland, I did ice climbing on top of a glacier, saw many double rainbows, triple rainbows, I met in incredible people and met my amazing friends from High On Life, took a last-minute adventure with them on our last day in Iceland to hot-springs and almost literally died in the process. Scariest night of my life. period.
The Night I Almost DIED In Iceland
2018
2018 was the best and worst year out of the decade. The first half started off like a dream and the second half turned into a tragedy.
2018, was the year of making one of my life long dreams come true — going to The Maldives and staying in an overwater villa! Words can’t describe my gratitude for this amazing trip! I got $20,000 worth for FREE! I also finally got to visit Thailand — a destination I’ve been talking about visiting since I was a kid. I also visited Colombia and Tulum again because it’s my favorite. VIsited, Paris, Israel and FINALLY Egypt.
I got to meet and befriend my favorite blogger, the one who inspired me to start blogging.
I also got to be a part of JetsetterBoss program, an online program my friends from High On Life created to help people make their traveling dreams and careers come true.
Sadly enough, I lost my friends from High On Life in a tragic accident and 3 of them passed away. This broke me and killed me a thousand times. I didn’t really recover from it for months/a year. I fly out to their celebration of life in Vancouver, Canada — my first time in Canada, never in my worst nightmares did I think that’s how I’d experience Canada for the first time but super glad I went, it changed my life.
2019
So here we are my friends! WOW! You made it through my rollercoaster of what I call life! lol THANK YOU! For reading this far! You are amazing! <3
I already wrote about this year in Reflecting On 2019 – How I Discovered My Magic Powers and 10 Things I’ve Accomplished In 2019
To sum it up this year was less about travel for me, although I definitely traveled more than I realized, but it was more about healing myself, spirituality, reconnecting with my soul on a whole other level. It was one of the best years of my life! I got to 100,000 followers on Instagram, got over 1,000,000 views on YouTube, I became a Revolve Ambassador — a dream I never want to wake up from, I traveled for free 95% of the year. I worked with amazing brands! I won the Thailand Village Academy. I met incredible and life-changing people. I had insane supernatural and mystical experiences. I converted my YouTube channel and brand into Travel + Spirituality/Self-Growth. I came out with my first digital product, my lightroom presets (more digital products in 2020!), I moved out of my apartment and well now, I’m waiting to see where the wind will blow me 🙂
The irony of it all…
I had my first spiritual awakening a decade ago and this year a second round. I started a blog a decade ago and here I am now, a travel blogging as a career. Life is wild, life is magical! You never know where it will take you, in a way so much as changed and yet, I’m kinda going through the same thing but in a different form than a decade ago. Maybe it’s just my souls mission and I was given a second chance. Kinda just realized that now.
I’m wiser, smarter, more humble, I actually finish projects now. I don’t give up when things get hard. I fight through. I fight hard.
I am so grateful for this decade, for this life, for the amazing opportunities that have come my way, the amazing things I got to see, do, feel, the incredible things I’ve got to accomplish.
Thank you for being a part of my life. I love you and wish you all the best in this new decade! Make a plan! Follow through with your dreams, there is nothing more rewarding. Make sure that when you look back at 2030, you’re not living the same decade on repeat.
I also wrote this to help you make your dreams and goals come true – 8 Steps To Actually Make Your New Year’s Resolutions & Goals HAPPEN!
Remember, “Once you have mastered time, you will understand how true it is that most people overestimate what they can accomplish in a year – and underestimate what they can achieve in a decade!”. – Tony Robbins
